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Carnegie
Report
Across
the country, you can find similar radios under the palm trees
of West Hollywood, California, a center of the 600,000 Russian-speaking
immigrants who have settled in Southern California. There,
listeners can subscribe to all-day broadcasts from the Panorama
Media Group, which also publishes Russian newspapers in Los
Angeles. Eugene Levin, who owns the business, says he believes
the paper serves the dual function of making its readers into
Americans while keeping them up on their own culture and interests.
“We try to help them as much as possible adjust to the
American way of life,” he says.
From his company’s offices above Hollywood Boulevard,
Levin has constructed a Russian-language media empire, complete
with radio and television studios, an entertainment newspaper,
a Russian yellow pages, and Panorama, probably the leading
Russian paper in Southern California. His newspapers and radio
service carry English lessons and the business section of
Panorama has published articles about American laws and how
to conduct yourself inside an American company.
A genial 50-year-old, Levin is politically active; he acknowledges
donating money to political campaigns and attending political
dinners and the like. His wife is a county commissioner of
consumer affairs as well as director of West Hollywood’s
Russian Community Center, and Levin heads an association of
Russian immigrants. Lately, he’s trying harder to get
his readers and listeners more politically active as well.
While Panorama has long encouraged readers to vote, it only
recently started endorsing political candidates, and politics,
especially the Middle East, are a staple on his radio service.
He says politicians in southern California understand the
importance of the ethnic media and seek their endorsement.
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Jewish Journal